The Philadelphia Flyers made the Todd Reirden hire official on Friday. As noted in yesterday’s blog, the 53-year-old Reirden will coach the Flyers defense and penalty kill. Additionally, the Flyers added 35-year-old Dylan Crawford to the staff as assistant coach in charge of video coaching.
The latter served as the Vancouver Canucks’ video coach under Rick Tocchet. Dylan comes from a hockey-lifer family. He is the son of longtime NHL head coach Marc Crawford, who played for and later coached the Canucks. The elder Crawford coached the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 1995-96 . Subsequently, he coached in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Dallas, Ottawa (associate then interim head coach), Los Angeles (as an assistant) and in Switzerland for Zurich SC. The younger Crawford served as an assistant and then primary video coach for the Chicago Blackhawks before getting the main video coach gig in Vancouver and now Philadelphia.
Adam Patterson served as the Flyers’ primary video coach from 2003-04 through the 2024-25 season. He is the son of longtime Flyers amateur scout and former Maine Mariners captain and Flyers depth player Dennis Patterson. Adam’s job title changed over the years as the video aspect grew with each passing year and the team added assistants. Last year under John Tortorella, his title became “assistant coach, video” to acknowledge Patterson as a full-fledged assistant coach within a specific aspect. Tortorella is big on video as a coaching tool. So, too, is Tocchet.
“Dylan adds another level to our video team in an area that is rapidly expanding and becoming more critical in the outcome of games and the way teams prepare,” Tocchet said in a statement issued by the Flyers.
Flyers Give Patterson a New Role
Patterson will remain part of the Flyers’ organization in a different capacity. Crawford takes over the “assistant coach, video” job title.
From my understanding, Tocchet’s style of video teaching to the player group is different from Tortorella’s. While Tortorella-directed sessions pointed out positive plays in addition to mistakes, some players felt repeatedly singled out in front of their teammates for negatives and rarely praised for improvements. Players felt like they learned things they could apply but some also felt hammered over the head excessively by Tortorella. Tocchet’s style is not to tell the group that “so-and-so really screwed up here” but is aimed toward the group. Privately, he may tell a player to get in gear or else but it’s not done in front of the whole team.
Prescouting video — clips that show upcoming oppoenents’ systems and potential vulnerability — is part of every team’s preparation in today’s hockey. This past season, there was a cool mic’d up clip of Flyers captain Sean Couturier on the bench after a successful play. He credited Patterson. Additionally, when the Flyers had a successful coach’s challenge, Tortorella was usually good about deflecting credit directly to the video staff who noticed an offside, a kicked-in goal that missed the stick or whatever.
However, Tortorella rarely answered routine questions about other clubs’ players or styles. He constantly said his sole focus was his own team, not the opponent. It was bunk. Prescouts exist for a reason, and Tortorella is nothing if not thorough on all aspects of prep. But he’d make it publicly sound like he barely cared about prescouts at all, when everyone knew that simply wasn’t true. Tocchet, in general, is more patient and more respectful to such routine questions.
I love the Reirdenhire. He is a terrific coach.
I guess Rick want his own video guy for coaching purposes.